Dokdo - a very politicized piece of worth of real estate

According to this blog by Brian Deutsch, the Korea Herald is reporting that Japan will lay fresh claims on Dokdo, known as Takeshima by the Japanese and called the Liancourt Rocks when parties wish to refer to it without pissing anyone off.
So what is this Dokdo?
Here is a Wikipedia entry for those who wish to find out a little more about the islet itself.
Since this is a Korea based blog, I will be focusing mostly on Korea's sentiment towards these rocks.

Bullshit: The Japanese encroachment or claims on Dokdo are a national security threat to not just South Korea, but to all of Korea.
The Truth: Japan's politicians use it as a way to get people's focus away from real problems such as their troubled economy by means of nationalism and South Korea's reaction to it is largely led by extremists who use nationalism to get the masses to follow them blindly down some very destructive paths.


Chemical Composition: C9H9N (100% Pure Bullshit)

How Dokdo Works For Both Sides
Japan:
Dokdo works for both sides in that, as stated above, the Japanese politicians use it as a way to divert attention away from their real problems and try to get their population behind them through nationalism. Where the politicians and the industries fail, they appeal to nationalism to try to hide their problems. It is a tactic used time and time again, very much like how General Leopoldo Galtieri, who became head of the Argentinian Government in December 1981, invaded the Falklands mostly because Argentina was going through a severe economic crisis.
The difference would be that Argentina actually invaded, whereas Japan, with the eyes of world opinion upon them are highly unlikely to do so militarily, but rather, diplomatically through the use of world opinion.
Korea:
South Korea on the other hand should know this but extremists (usually ultra nationalists who are oddly enough, the left wing in Korea) have a different agenda in which gaining followers is their primary goal. They use the Japanese actions regarding Dokdo to pent up nationalistic fervor and get people behind them in their cause. Of course it never really is about Dokdo itself. It always becomes another anti-foreign (especially anti-American), isolationalist movement in no time and because people are so overcome with emotion, they don't stop to think what it's really about.


The power of high school grade theater

The Effects
I can't say for sure how things turn out in Japan, simply becuase I'm not there to check it out myself though I do know that any Asian person who actually manages to hear about it somehow would disapprove of Japan's actions due to Japan's history in the region during the first half of the 20th century.
As regards to Korea, it does nothing but get Korea further and further away from legitimacy over Dokdo and weakens Korea's standing in the intenational stage.
The constant protests, the spreading of xenophobic, anti-foreign, isolationist propaganda simply turns the rest of the world away from Korea both in terms of the every day person's view of Korea and the diplomatic and economic view of Korea.

The Average Joe:
The average Joe usually doesn't care about South Korea but sometimes he might get a look at yet another protest in South Korea and that is all he will see. A bunch of people who are always angry at just about everything. He doesn't care about the history of the rocks etc etc.
"DO YOU KNOW? DOKDO BELONGS TO KOREA."
"I don't care."
And why should they? It's a pathetically small islet which serves no function and has no real population.
For people not really emotionally attached to Korea who know about it, it's just another disputed territory piss fight, one of hundreds that can be found just about anywhere in the world.
All it does is make Koreans hate foreigners and foreigners hate Korea in response. No one likes being around unpleasant people who are hateful of them. Koreans included. All the rules that apply to everyone else also applies to Korea. But try telling that to a Korean.


Screw the T-shirt. Actually...


Diplomatic
As xenophobic, isolationist leaders gain power and influence in South Korea (like Noh Moo-hyun and Kim Dae-jung) they make decisions that further alienate Korea from the rest of the world. Lots of countries joined in on the War on Terror. Whereas many did not participate in hostilities in Iraq (or soon pulled out when it was established that no WMDs were present), many did join the hostilities in Afghanistan where the threat IS real. The Netherlands, Denmark, Poland and Canada (among many others) provided definitive combat operations in the theater, but due to Korean anti-Americanism, South Korea did not.
Japan provided what it could under its strict laws restricting the use of their Self Defense Force.
South Korea could have easily sent troops into combat legally but refused to do so.
Although South Korea is a signatory of the Mutual Defense Pact with the United States it did not participate fully in Afghanistan. One can argue that it is not a violation since it is not a declared war against a sovreign state, but one can see how it is a violation in the spirit of the agreement.
What this does is raise Japan's image in the view of the world and it lowers South Korea's. The next time the two have a diplomatic conflict over Dokdo and the eyes of the world opinion matter, the world very well could back Japan overwhelmingly.


Chung Sye Kyun, the leader of the Uri Party (the one that really hates America)

Economic
Who the hell wants to invest in a country that is always having strikes, protests etc., the labor prices are high and the environment is hostile towards foreigners?
I'm surprised anyone even bothers doing business with South Korea.

Dokdo is simply a political tool used by leaders who are in trouble or by aspiring leaders who have nothing to offer and need to rely on hate, emotion and extreme nationalism to get anything done.

Simplified Through Cola
Another fine comparison would be to this kind of Korean Cola that was around. It was called 815 COLA and was supposed to be the National Cola of Korea (though it is in no way endorsed by the government). August 15th is Korea's day of independence after 35 odd years of official colonization under the Empire of Japan. 815 COLA appealed to nationalism to sell its product because the product itself was horrible.
Eventually people were fed up with buying lousy Cola and just went straight for the foreign brands.


There's no national smear crime like putting your flag on a very bad product

Same deal with policies. Bad policies set by nationaistic fervor and pent up emotion will lead to disaster very much the same way, except instead of a Company arrogant enough to try to use nationalism to sell their product going bankrupt, the country's national power would suffer badly.